Send a note:

Topic: General Real Estate

If you’re paying any attention at all, you know that tax reform is one of countless issues being discussed in Washington DC right now. Whether you like what the House and Senate are proposing, or whether you don’t, the fact is that what’s on the table as “reform” has some serious deficiencies, and will be vigorously debated in the next several weeks.

As a primer, I wanted to highlight the differences between the House and Senate bills. As of this writing, the House has passed its’ version, on November 16 2017, with the Senate set to begin floor consideration after Thanksgiving. So what’s in each plan (for now)?

The above details were provided by the National Association of Realtors. For further context from NAR, make sure to read the Overview here – essentially, “NAR is OPPOSED to the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” tax reform plan released by the Senate Finance Committee, and its companion legislation H.R.1 passed by the House of Representatives on November 16.”

The Mortgage Interest Deduction (MID) is one of the biggest talking points within the real estate community to come out of these plans. On the surface, the MID allows a homeowner to reduce their taxable income by deducting the interest they’re paying on their mortgage. I was unable to find current statistics on this deduction for Virginia, but it looks as if – in 2014 – Virginia homeowners deducted an average of $10,250 in MID, saving $2,750 in taxable income. Removing this deduction keeps a not-so-insignificant amount of money as taxable for somewhere around 70% of all Virginians. The MID is further canceled out because standard deductions are doubled, while state and local tax deductions are eliminated. This is $2,750 that Virginians put back into their homes, into their small businesses, into their savings … this is money that doesn’t get reinvested, either actively or passively, into the local community ever again.

Everyone – myself included – wants lower taxes, but we can’t provide those if offering lower taxes to some means putting higher taxes on to the majority of Americans, which these repeals and modifications would clearly do. Further, tax reform doesn’t mean short-term cuts to some Americans that would roll into tax increases in just five short years. We have to do better.

There are plenty of resources out there regarding tax reform and its impact on American homeowners. For two resources, I’d suggest starting with NAR and their Tax Reform page, as well as Home Ownership Matters. I’d love to be able to provide resources that accurately reflect the benefits of this plan, but the truth is that they’re incredibly difficult to find. Investopedia has a really good breakdown, however, and it’s about as holistic a look at the issue as I’ve been able to find.

It’s been a while since I jumped back on the blogging train, and while there are a number of excuses for that, none of them are really good ones. Maybe we can get to that a little bit later … one day … perhaps.

Anywho – just got the video back from our 2017 Nest County Fair, and man was it fun! The County Fair is an annual event we hold here at Nest Realty, and it’s an opportunity to have some fun with those who’ve supported and cheered us on. While it’s something that other Nest offices have done for years – Charlottesville just celebrated with THIRTY ONE HUNDRED PEOPLE! – it’s still relatively new to our office, so we’re still somewhat small, and working out the kinks.

Despite the kinks, we had a blast, as usual! Thanks to all those who were able to join us, and celebrate what makes the New River Valley so great – the people! Here’s a short video of the event (thanks, Andrei Rizescu, for capturing this):

I’ve been sharing for years that the New River Valley real estate market is very similar to Aesop’s Fable of the tortoise and the hare. And today, a client sent a text that showed he’d been listening. He had been looking for property at karkanja.com and he waited and finally got the house he wanted. Now we just have to move, so we hired this company who do Removals to Denmark.

Conventional thinking seems to be that we have to make decisions quickly, particularly when it comes to real estate. I cringe when I see agents saying “you’re going to have to act fast!”, then months later their condo is still on the market. I cry a little when I see folks saying “rates are low, act now, they’re going to go up!”, which is the same thing they said two years ago. No wonder the public doesn’t trust us – when all we’re doing is pushing our own agenda, I don’t trust us, either.

When it comes to real estate, I am firmly in the camp of “slow and steady wins the race”. I know I’m in the minority there among my colleagues, but I believe 100% that clients make their best decisions when they can slow down and analyze the situation, specially when they have professionals from Prugh Real Estate Jackson Hole WY on their side helping them. Others may say you have to act quickly in order to get anything done, but I’d argue that a broader look at that line of thinking will reveal more mistakes and losses than wins – or at least more losses than you might think. There’s nothing wrong with taking your time, with doing your due diligence, with making sure your questions are answered. Can taking too much time work against you? Of course – paralysis by analysis is a very real thing. But the decisions that need to be made during our transaction are best made when you have time to deliberate, study, and think. That isn’t to say sometimes those decisions need to be made a little faster than you might be comfortable with, but if you’re constantly being pressed to make a decision before you’re ready, it might be time to stop the race.

Field workers will start knocking on doors on Monday, July 31, 2017, to visit every taxable and nontaxable property in the County over the next year to verify property information, such as square feet, and number of bedrooms and baths, it can be a hassle and it´s no wonder why people prefer investing in Denver real estate. Field workers will have County identification badges and cars marked “County Reassessment.”

Times have changed, and so have the methods of finding real estate. You’ve got sites like NestRealty.com, Realtor.com, Zillow, and hundreds (thousands?) of others. And how many times have you found a great home on a site, emailed your agent, and found out that the house you wanted isn’t actually for sale any longer? (By the way, did you know that Nest Realty syndicates to more than 150 national and regional locations?) While everyone has a different website they like and trust, I’m always going to recommend that if you see a home for sale on one site, cross-reference it on NestRealty.com. Our search option connects direct to the Multiple Listing Service, so you know if it shows for sale on NestRealty.com it’s available and ready for you to take a look.

Scammers – they’re the lowest of the low. And now, we’re seeing them go after home buyers, attempting to steal money via wire transfers. It’s something we’ve been watching gain momentum for a few months now, and while Nest Realty has taken steps to continue to safeguard our clients’ information, it’s still important to stay vigilant.

Nest Managing Broker Keith Davis has put together a really great blog post detailing the scam, and highlighting ways that you, as a home buyer or seller, can protect yourself. Even if you’re not working with Nest Realty, make sure your agent knows of the scam, and talk with them about steps to protect yourself. You can read the full post here.

If you own a home in Montgomery County, whether you’re in a town like Blacksburg or Christiansburg, or in the County itself, you very likely received one of these green forms in the mail recently. It looks like a bill, it smells like a bill … but is it a bill?

It depends.

Taxes in Montgomery County are paid semi-annually, so twice a year the County will send out these notices requesting half of your annual real estate taxes to be paid in the next month. In this case, the amount is due June 5, payable to the Montgomery County Treasurer. If your mortgage payment only consists of Principal and Interest and you’re responsible for paying your own Taxes and Insurance, then yes – you need to pay this tax, you can give it to your Tax accountant if you´re not sure how to do it yourself. If your mortgage payment every month includes esrows, then this tax should be paid by monies collected by your mortgage company.

Of course, if you want to be sure, you can contact gilbert tax, and have them talk it over with you, and explain the situation to you in detail.

So yes – this is a bill, but if you have escrows on your mortgage payment than you do not need to pay it. It would be a good idea – rather, an excellent idea – to contact your mortgage company and make sure that they received a copy of this bill, as well.

In the last several weeks, we’ve been doing a lot of candidate tours for various colleges at Virginia Tech looking to hire new folks. Invariably, as we’re showing these prospective hires all that the New River Valley, the question always comes up – “what are real estate taxes like?”

Ah, taxes. We all love them, right? Of course not, but we’re lucky to have relatively low taxes compared to other areas of the country. However, they’re a part of the equation when making your mortgage payment every month. These amounts will vary from locality to locality, and in some cases a municipality will have TWO rates – one rate will be for the City or Town, and the other rate will be for the appropriate County. Feel free to use the phone numbers below to contact the taxing authority if you have questions.*

Note – This is a post that’s been written on this site several times, and is still one of the most regular hits. This time around, I thought I’d update it with the date of the last assessment based on http://www.rebeccasrealtor.com, as well as the date of the next assessment. Rates should not change during that period.

To calculate current yearly tax, take the current assessed value of the home, divide by 100 and multiply by the current tax rate.

The assessed value of the home is $250000 and the home is in Blacksburg:
$250000/100 = 2500 x 1.14 = 2850 Yearly tax $2850

Locale

Tax Rate

Phone Number

Last Assessment

Next Assessment

Blacksburg

$.25 + $.89 = $1.14

540-961-1105

2015

2019

Bland County

$.60

276-688-3741

2014

2020

Christiansburg

$.16 + $.89 = $1.05

540-382-9519

2015

2019

Craig County

$.59

540-864-6241

2017

2023

Floyd County

$.55

540-745-9345

2015

2020

Giles County

$.61

540-921-3321

2015

2020-2021

Montgomery County

$.89

540-382-5717

2015

2019

Pulaski County

$.54

540-980-7785

2014

2020

Radford City

$.76

540-731-3661

2016

2020

Rich Creek

$.20 + $.61 = $.74

540-726-3260

2015

2020-2021

Town of Floyd

$.24 + $.55 = $.79

540-745-2565

As needed

As needed

Town of Pulaski

$.34 + $.64 = $.86

540-994-8640

2014

2020

Town of Narrows

$.47 + $.61 = $1.08

540-726-2423

2015

2020-2021

Town of Pearisburg

$.335 + $.61 = $.945

540-921-0340

2015

2020-2021

Town of Pembroke

$.326 + $.61 = $.936

540-626-7191

2016

2020

* Tax information is assumed reliable – contact the local Commissioner of the Revenue for more information. Updated 04/28/17.

As Realtors, we get asked a lot “what’s the market like right now?”. I was in Richmond last week, meeting with Virginia Senators and Delegates from our district, and every single one of them asked “how’s the market?”. It can seem disingenuous to always be saying that the real estate market is moving quickly, but as you can see from the graph below of single-family homes in Blacksburg and Christiansburg, as of this post the market is moving quickly. We’re not making this up.

(The graph is interactive, and therefore should update automatically over time; what it’s detailing is how many months worth of supply there is at any given point. If you hover your mouse over a particular point on the graph, you’ll see the exact data representation for that point of the graph.)

As you look at this, what you’re seeing is that – since July 2016 – inventory levels in the NRVMLS (New River Valley Multiple Listing Service) have been falling. It took Blacksburg and Christiansburg a few more months to catch up, but beginning in September 2016 they also saw inventory levels starting to fall. In January 2017, inventory in the NRVMLS was at 6.3 months of inventory, in Blacksubrg it was 2.6 months, and in Christiansburg, 3.4 months. We call this the Absorption Rate – how long it would take the market to absorb the available inventory in the market. I’ve written about it before, and it’s something that we at Nest Realty watch pretty closely.

Why does Absorption Rate matter? Well, it gives us a sense of both where the market has been, and where it is now. The general line of thinking is that 6 months of inventory is a relatively balanced market, favoring neither buyers nor sellers – much like the New River Valley real estate market right now. Click Here to see more info. Anything greater than six months typically favors buyers because supply is exceeding demand, and anything less than six months favors sellers because demand is exceeding supply. That’s what we’re seeing in Blacksburg and Christiansburg.

So what’s that mean for buyers and sellers in Blacksburg and Christiansburg right now? It’s a familiar refrain, I’m afraid – sellers who are priced well and show well are going to be in the drivers’ seat for the foreseeable future, and buyers need to be ready and prepared (preapproved) to buy … there isn’t going to be much opportunity to wait and think about it.

The data relating to real estate on this website comes in part from the Broker Reciprocity/IDX (Internet Data Exchange) Program of the New River Valley Multiple Listing Service, Inc. Real estate listings held by brokerage firms other than Nest Realty are marked with the Broker Reciprocity logo (IDX) and detailed information about them includes the name of the broker.